The Seeker (23 page)
Authors: Karan Bajaj
tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe vasthānam
Then, the seer dwells in His own true splendor.
This isn’t a book as much as a result of five years of my life trying to walk on the path of yoga. I stumbled and struggled often to reach the point where I became just a channel for this story to tell itself. Through all of this, my wife, Kerry, believed in me even when I lost faith in myself, and this book wouldn’t exist without her exceptional creative and spiritual inputs. This book is as much hers as mine.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar, Swami Sivananda, and Mr. S.N. Goenka, spiritual icons I’ve never met but whose soul-stirring words have spoken to me as if they were living, breathing guides standing beside me.
My mother’s lifelong interest in the Bhagavad Gita and my father’s unwavering commitment to yoga had a profound impact on my decision to take a year off from work to deepen my meditation practice. Much of this novel was written in that year.
Kerry and I met a lot of wonderful people on the road, many of whose journeys merged into Max’s journey. My special thanks to Dhanakosa Buddhist Retreat Center in Scotland; Dhamma Atala and Dhammalaya Vipassana centers in Italy and Kohlapur respectively; the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta ashram in Madurai; Aranya and its patron Varun Sood in Goa; Obras and its patrons, Caroline and Ludger in Portugal; Monal Guesthouse and its patrons, Deepinder and Poonam in Uttarkashi; and Spiros and Ursula in Greece for their generosity in hosting us.
My in-laws, Joan and Michael Monaghan, made our year away from home easier by giving their big-hearted, unconditional support as they always do.
My colleagues, Lisa Mann, Sanjay Khosla, Gina Schenk, Julie Donahue, Deanie Elsner, Doug Weekes, Bharat Puri, and Xavier Boza will always be special to me for making exception after exception to allow me to bring my full self into corporate America. Such big people, all of them!
If the characters and settings in the book feel authentic, I give much credit to Jonathan Kozol’s compassionate, deeply observed books on the Bronx projects, Jeff Hobbs’
The Short and Tragic life of Robert Peace
, and Alex Kotlowitz’s
There Are No Children Here
. I can also not overstate the deep effect of the Buddha’s quest as captured in Herman Hesse’s
Siddhartha
, Karen Armstrong’s
Buddha
, and Arundhati Subramaniam’s
The Book of Buddha
, on my writing—and my life.
The book wouldn’t have been published without my agent, Mollie Glick. She’s the rare deal, a mainstream agent supporting off-the-beaten-path voices.
Jake Morrissey, my incredibly competent editor at Riverhead, gave me an equivalent of a two-year MFA with his unrelenting but compassionate edits through the course of the book. I’ll always be grateful to him for treating this book as if it were his own and helping me get to the real heart of the story I wanted to tell.
Chiki Sarkar’s warm, exuberant support lifted me up during the lowest points of writing this book, something I’ll always treasure. The book is so much stronger for her thoughtful edits.
Sarah Cypher, Marlene Adelstein, Shatarupa Ghoshal, Anshuman Acharya, Hriday Sarat, Trupti Rustagi, Saurabh Nanda, Rachael Belfon, Samir Mishra, Milee Ashwarya, Anna Ghosh, and close friends and family, thank you for your deep, thoughtful inputs at various stages of the book to give it the shape it has taken today.
Ayush Pant—what a powerhouse presence to enter this book at a late stage! I’ll be watching from the sidelines as you go from strength to strength with Aurelius marketing and give wings to many authors’ efforts. Thank you for believing in the book as you did.
My appreciation also for Chetan Syal from Aurelius; Mohan and Varsha from Paradigm Shift; Shruti Katoch, Caroline Newbery, Gavin Morris, and Chetan Kishore at Penguin India; John and Masako Mamus, Melissa Chang, and Mike Ricca—such a responsive team that sets the bar for creative excellence and passionate execution.
And a final word for my small family—Kerry, Leela, and Coconut—for filling my heart with joy and sharing with me a love that knows no bondage or attachment, the love of a yogi.
Let the conversation begin…
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Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Penguin Books India 2015
Copyright © Karan Bajaj 2015
Cover photographs © Getty Images and Tim Robinson/Millennium Images, UK
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 978-0-143-42395-9
This digital edition published in 2015.
e-ISBN: 978-9-352-14037-4
For sale in the Indian Subcontinent only
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above-mentioned publisher of this book.
